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Joan Mandle of Democracy Matters, left, Karen Scharff of Citizen Action New York, and Ian Vandewalker of Brennan Center for Justice meet today at Syracuse Media Group. Earlier in the day, the trio met with Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, a co-chair of a state anti-corruption commission, to talk about campaign finance reforms.
(Teri Weaver | syracuse.com )

Syracuse, N.Y. - The investigative commission formed to root out political corruption is aiming to first propose new policies to strengthen New York's much criticized campaign finance laws, say advocates who are meeting with members around the state.

The members of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Commission to Investigate Public Corruption also want to investigate cases where political contributions directly influence legislation that benefits campaign contributors, representatives of Citizen Action of New York, the Brennan Center for Justice and Democracy Matters said today.

But, overall, representatives from the three groups said today, the commission appears to be focusing on a set of legislative changes and rule recommendations for its first report, due in December.

The groups met today with Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, one of the three co-chairs on the commission.

"He made it very clear that the commission's first job is policy recommendations," said Karen Scharff, the executive director of Citizen Action after meeting privately with Fitzpatrick in Syracuse.

But, she said, the commission is "also very willing to do investigations."

Those investigations could include multiple examples of campaign contributions that link to legislation drafted or passed that would benefit the donors, Scharff and others said, based on their meetings with commission members and staff this summer.

Already, the New York Daily News has reported the commission has subpoenaed five New York City developers who benefited from tax breaks written specifically for them. The Daily News has reported Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver penned the legislation, while two of the developers gave Cuomo big donations days before his bill-signing. The governor's office and the donating developers have said the money and the bill were not linked.

"They are looking at a number of different examples of that," Scharff said. "That's the general direction they are looking in."

The three advocate groups are pushing the commission members to consider campaign law reforms, including lowering donation limits, public financing of campaigns and creating a stronger Board of Elections to investigate political fundraising and spending. Joan Mandle of Democracy Matters and Ian Vandewalker of the Brennan Center said Fitzpatrick was open to the discussion.

Scharff, Mandle and Vandewalker said they tried to arrange a meeting with Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, another commission member. Mahoney declined, saying she's not taking any meetings regarding the commission, according to Scharff and Mahoney's spokesman.